Saturday, August 15, 2009

Checkout line confessions

As I was checking out at the grocery today, my husband was making polite chitchat with the female bagger. Older, heavyset, she had the air of a crazy cat lady. When she saw the litter we were purchasing, the conversation took a turn for the slightly maddening:

"So, how many cats do you have?"
My husband, "Six."
"Me too! Well, 7, if you count the outdoor cat. My newest one, she needs to be spayed. She's about to have babies."
Husband: mumbles something politely.
Her: "I can't afford to get her spayed. It costs too much. There's some sort of low cost spay around, but they make you get some shots before they'll do it."
Husband: nodding along.
Her: "I think they should do the spays for free! They're too expensive."

What do you suppose I said in response, dear readers?

Absolutely nothing.

4 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I admire your restraint... I will never be able to restrain myself like that..

Anonymous said...

Ok, so....if she is a crazy cat lady and you have the same number of cats as her.......... then you are also a crazy cat lady??? Too funny! --Jennifer

DrSteggy said...

Crazy cat ladies don't care for their pets. They let them get pregnant and think someone else should take care of their responsibilities. The number of cats matters not.

And MAN. If this was not a store I frequented I would have asked that woman if she thought she should be working for free, since clearly minimum wage is TOO EXPENSIVE for bagging groceries...especially when literally anyone can do it. There is not 8 years of training going into it, ya know?

I regularly cause a scene at PetCo though, if I speak to anyone.

GuitarGirlRN said...

Gah. Saying nothing is your best bet, unfortunately. It's like when people come to the ED for a pregnancy test. No complaints, no bleeding or problems. Just want to check for pregnancy. That test is $4 at Wal-Mart. It's like $100 in the ED.